TVSquad

Elizabeth asks: What happened to the show Men In Trees. Just out of no where Bam! it's gone. I loved this show.... Bring it back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sorry to be the bearer of bad somewhat bad news Elizabeth (and all other Men In Trees fans who have emailed us about the show) but the series will not return until next Fall.

Jim Carrey has been doing the talk show circuits to promote his new movie The Number 23. I'm always waiting for him to mention Lost's Easter eggs, but it seems that he sure loves himself some David Caruso and CSI.

In his visit to The Late Show With David Letterman, Carrey's exuberant comedic personality came out to play and he paid homage to David Caruso by doing his own impressions of the CSI actor.

If you're Jim Carrey, all you need is a good pair of sunglasses and a line from your favorite cartoon!

And in other Top 5 news, if you're looking for someone to say that they have never seen Paula Abdul drink...

(S03E13) Okay, that was a pretty cool season finale -- with one caveat. I hate it when TV shows (and movies for that matter) use plot devices simply for the purpose of setting things up for the next season (or movie). What if the series gets canceled? No closure. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

For those of you who have never seen an episode of The 4400 (like me), or those of you who watch the show but want to get caught up on what's going on, USA is having an all-day marathon of the show today. The first episode airs at 11am and the marathon runs until 7pm tonight.

This, of course, leads up to tonight's season finale of the show at 9pm. It's followed by the season finale of another show I've never seen, The Dead Zone. Saw the movie though.

The 4400 has certainly evolved as a show. The first season was just cool because it introduced a new concept. But it kind of had that Star Trek Freak-of-the-Week thing going for it. The second season became more intense and started to further the plot. Unlike The Dead Zone, which I also review, there are few episodes of The 4400 that don't somehow have a point and drive the series toward the promised apocalypse. The third season has become darker, more sinister in ways, and more intense, like Lost.

Let's see what has happened since "Blink."

Every time we do a post about The 4400 (or even when we don't do a post about, say, a particular episode), we're always surprised at the number of fans who come out of the woodwork to passionately defend and discuss the program. But it looks like USA is fully aware of this fan base, as they've been very satisfied with the show's ratings for the last three years. Because of this, the cable net is renewing the show for a fourth season, with 13 episodes to be broadcast next summer.

When the show premiered in 2004, it received the highest ratings and biggest audience of any basic cable new-series premiere to that point, so the strong ratings it still receives shouldn't be a surprise. But, compared to other shows on the same network, like Monk, Psych, and even The Dead Zone, the show seems to get little media attention -- at least from the non sci-fi crowd. Maybe it'll finally get the attention it deserves in 2007.

Jacqueline McKenzie had her turn. Now Joel Gretsch (Tom Baldwin) and Patrick Flueger (Shawn) of The 4400 will team up to appear live on buddytv.com. Catch it Monday August 21st, 9pm ET/ 6pm PT where the pair will answer questions for about an hour via webcam and audio. Since this one won't coincide with a new episode of the show, there'll be no need for fans to to split their attention. Joel Gretsch is William Shatner's son-in-law so it might be fun to see if he has a take on Comedy Central's Shatner Roast which airs the night before this chat.

(Thanks, Jon!)

I listened in on Sunday's BuddyTV 4400 chats (which are now archived) with Aussie actress Jaqueline McKenzie who plays NTAC's Diana Skouris on the show. She certainly appeared to enjoy herself while hosting, and spent two one-hour-length sessions with fans gamely attempting to keep up with a flood of questions. Here's a few things we found out:

Unless, like me, your typing fingers turn into thumbs around brainy, sexy women, this Sunday August 6th at 9 p.m. Eastern you can join BuddyTV for a live chat with Jacqueline McKenzie -- NTAC Agent Diana Skouris -- on The 4400.

McKenzie also recently appeared as the wife of one of the William H. Macy's characters in the Nightmares and Dreamscapes episode: Umney's Last Case. You can ask her how she likes Vancouver, or whether she thinks the writers will give her a new romantic interest, now that she's dumped the kind-but-unsuitable Marco (I think Agent Diana prefers badder boys).

(S03E08) A friend and I were talking about a third woman, one who's involved with a volunteer organization. "I want my donation to be therapy for her!" said the friend. This week's episode of The 4400 opens that delicious possibility: the ability to force therapy onto someone. Oh, were it only true! I totally would have stolen that lady's herbs, too.

As it turns out, the therapy isn't always beneficent. Three people commit suicide at the opening of the show, haunted too cruelly by figures from their past. This sends Tom and Diana into a quest to find the source of the hallucinations -- a brand-new street drug called "Blink" -- and quash their own demons, personified by Tom's dead father and Diana's old fiancé.

Speaking of fiancés. The plot took its most delicious turn yet.

(S03E07) After Dennis Ryland's several near-death experiences in the third season premiere, and the peaks we see into Isabelle's cooperation with him in this episode, I'll admit I was beginning to feel hopeless. Ryland seemed all-powerful, able to fend off any manner of 4400 attacks and unstoppably diabolical. The perfect enemy and doppelganger archfiend for Tom.

That feeling kept cropping up throughout the episode, sometimes dully thudding as an undercurrent, sometimes spiking into a painful crescendo. Tom and Alanna were spinning out of control. First she was accused of being a Nova Group member, then we learned she had betrayed Tom's trust (but we all knew she was doing good the whole time, right?). Then it seemed she was headed for several years behind bars ... and Tom and Diana, how would they live with themselves if they gave up Gary Navarro to Mr. Perfect Evil himself?

This summer, NBC and CBS are working hard to drum up excitement for shows that air on cable channels owned by the networks. On Saturday, CBS will air the season premiere of Showtime's new drama, Brotherhood (read Annie's early review). And, for the next two Mondays, NBC will air the first two episodes of this season's Project Runway, which usually airs on Bravo. NBC has already done this with The 4400; airing a wrap-up of the program on its network in hopes of getting viewers excited enough that they'll switch on over to USA. Hopefully NBC will show a little love to Battlestar Galactica when it returns in October. And ABC has been playing episodes of ABC Family's new hit, Kyle XY, on Friday nights.

Whether this "cross-pollenation" works is anybody's guess. Except for Project Runway, these shows aren't exactly getting prime real estate when they do air on the major networks.

[Via TV Tattle]

(S03E06) Last week there were arguments. I said the wrapup was too neat. Some of you said no, I just didn't get it -- there was complexity. Things might not be as they seemed. And I'm happy to ring the bell of correct-ness. Ding ding ding! az1324 called it: Matthew was sent back from the future to work for the "other side." Whatever the other side, is.

Indeed, much to my delight we're given ever more conundrums in The 4400. It does seem as if Isabelle has redressed her "angel of death" moniker, although she is causing quite a bit of murder and mayhem as she turns the gifts of the Nova Group members against them. Perhaps we should replace the "of death" in her title, in fact, with "avenging."

Add Alana -- who through her work with students in the 4400 school, finds the man who killed her first husband and son -- to the list of AA members. And when we're talking 4400, AA stands for Avenging Angel.

(S03E05) As if the writers were pumping promicin themselves and reading the viewers' minds, Maia is neither gone nor forgotten in the second part of "Gone." And she comes back with explosive force, erupting into Tom and Alanna's fantasy worlds, radiating through Diana's frantic subconscious. I'm rapt as I watch Diana making a frightening collage of little girls' faces, as I see her sink into desperation when she learns that Maia has been sent back to the 1800s -- and died, at 25, only having left diaries behind as she expired on the Oregon Trail.

While I'm rapt by Tom and Diana emerging from the distinct wooden quality of the past several episodes, I'm thrown by the seemingly random details skittering about the edges of the plot. The 4400 we meet this week, an investment banker, can smell pheremones. It's a cool party trick and, you'd think, useful in the plot of a drama starring Alicia Silverstone. But it's a sideshow, just like the valiant efforts made (and subsequently erased) in the far past by the other children: synthetic fuel, colonies on the moon. Lovely, but ... why do these very interesting details feel as if they were picked out of a science fiction grab bag?

(S03E04) 'Gone' is an appropriate title for last night's episode. Gone is Lily, dead at the feet of her gorgeous and precocious (in sex, and in everything) daughter. Gone is Jordan Collier (even though he is tantalizingly alive according to last season's finale). Gone -- from the storyine line this season so far -- are Kyle and any number of tantalizing minor characters. Gone are Shawn's confidence, Matthew Ross' wisdom and principles, Diana's interestingness, Tom's keen relevance to the plot, all Diana's good dialogue.

And, at the end of the episode, gone is Maia, at least in the incarnation we know. Certainly, she'll be back, but not as Diana's daughter.Her absence creates a huge hole, most notably in Diana's deep connection to the 4400 through their close relationship.